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To my certain recollection the term vocalist has been around for years. It may now perhaps be gaining in popularity but I prefer the term: 'the annoying bastard at the front with his idiotic music stand and his crap jokes; who arrives last, leaves first and seldom buys a round; the man whose wife is in a permanent state of (i) illness (ii) vexation (iii) pregnancy; he who never scores a gig except free gigs; and his stupid hat.'

*whispers* Do it.. kill rock and roll, kill it.. go on.. kill it

I've been known to press the 'Post EQ' button after he's plugged it into my amp

I interviewed Frank some years ago along with David Ellefson and I have to say that they are both super nice guys. Really down to earth and chatty. You'd be forgiven for thinking you were just hanging out with a fellow BassChatter. Frank even got me a beer.

Not that it's my choice to make but I agree that the plain tops complement the burl top best. Do you have a position marker on them? (Thanks for the change of background) Andy, I'd go for a W shaped F hole and patent it PDQ. It looks like Norris is a little sensitive about his norrisole. Norris, I've now got a design for a hole shaped like a Cumberland sausage but I've got nowhere left to put the chuffing bridge! I hope you're happy with yourself.

Oh, they are compulsory to try As is the vanderkley cab and EICH 1000w head... Heheh...

Luckily I have a two-gig weekend that's going to keep me occupied. Otherwise, like a poorly-trained spaniel, I'd be chewing up the furniture. Seriously though, when I asked Andy to make me the bass the idea was always 'when it's done, it's done'. No time constraints.

The end is in sight? Neil will be struggling with "Is it done yet?" for the next few days....

Well - I'm out of excuses now...tomorrow is final sanding day and finishing starts at the weekend. The last job was to set the bridge at its final height, and that allows me to see how much leeway I have for the final curve of the top. It's not critical, but I would like the bridge plate to be at least partially sunken into the top and, ideally, flush. It makes no difference to the functionality, but I want to avoid the look of some bridges where they appear to be a bit of an afterthought. I used a Dremel precision router for the flatness and finished the edges with chisels. Like the pickup routs, I did the curved front corners with a 5mm drill, drilled to final depth, before routing the bulk out : That gives me a nice close fit and looks like it is supposed to be there: This done, it lets me pencil the 'flush level'... ...so I can see how deep to sand. The aim will be flush at the leading edge and curving down a touch to expose the bridge plate progressively towards the tailstock. I'm hoping that the weather stays dry tomorrow as it is a lot easier to do the final sand outside - especially when looking for sanding marks, glue overspill and unwanted dints. The Osmo has arrived so, all being well, I should be able to apply the first couple of sealing coats as well before the start of the weekend

Thanks Geoff,your lessons and videos were a big help when I got my EUB and now I'm reviewing some of them as I work on proper techniques for the DB...and having lots of fun too!

Despite being one of the bands I have seen the most times I still have to remind myself that David J of Bauhaus played fretless. One of the pleasures of old age this not remembering lark...

That`s why I always connect the DI cable to my Sansamp - a straight bass sound would decimate the sound of our band, much the same way as getting the guitarist to play his Les Paul with no gain.

That is the difference between musicians that have to work for their living and pampered over produced pop stars who think the sun shines out of their behinds because someone else wrote a hit song for them... .bit like footballers vs rugby players.

Bluejay, that is exactly the first thing that came to my mind! Reyalpssabginkcufecin! (one for the Anthrax fans there)

Compared to the hollowbody beauty above, my short scale is somewhat simple, yet a nice piece of candy... Fender Pawn Shop Bass VI, I got it in a trade two days ago. Nice piece! Makes a fine contrastb to my other "real" basses...

It's part of the lyrics for the song Angel Delight. Played by Dave Pegg, as with virtually every Fairport recording, on his trusty Fender Precision. The Ibanez is a recent acquisition.

This reminds me of my first bass from 1993 or so! Unfortunately, it was a dog - heavier than a Trace Elliot amp, with what appeared to be a ply-like neck! It was a 1969 Kay. Terrible. Yours looks great though! I’m getting all sentimental now - might go looking for a looky likey...

No..!

Now you tell me!!!!! 😮

Here are the plain knobs - they will lighten a touch when the oil has dried. @SpondonBassed - please note that I SOMETIMES take notice of what you say ref the background The comparison is here: Personally, I prefer the plainer ones on the actual bass - my eye is drawn to the top and not the knobs - but, whatever, Neil will be given both sets

Well it has taken a while, but I've finally had time to give my Burns Barracuda Bass a proper work out including a rehearsal with the band. First the obligatory photos: While it shares a lot in common with the Squier being a Bass VI, in many ways it is a very different instrument, especially when it comes to the pickups and electrics. The wider neck is much more comfortable for me than the narrow Squier. However it is not as wide as the specifications would lead you to believe. Nut width is 45mm, but the actual string spacing between the two E strings is only 38mm, a mere 3mm more than the Squier, and the strings are very obviously set in from the fingerboard edges. The difference is enough to make the neck feel more comfortable overall, but if the string spacing made full use of the available nut width, it would be even more useful to me. The fingerboard is bound in fake MoP which looks great, but doesn't make the dots particularly easy to see in subdued lighting conditions - as I discovered the first time I took this bass into the rehearsal room. At the other end things are less good. The overall string spacing at the bridge is only 52mm compared with 55mm on the Squier, so while it is easier to form chord shapes on the neck without inadvertently muting strings with my fingers, picking the correct string cleanly is a lot harder. For the first week I was constantly missing strings or playing the wrong one. This is one of the problems when the hardware for a Bass VI has been appropriated from a guitar design. The Squier Bass VI might look like it's been cobbled together from bits left over from the Fender Jaguar, but all the important parts have been suitably altered to suit the nature of the instrument. The bridge on the Barracuda appears to be exactly the same as that on the Marvin Guitar and consequently the spacing here is really a bit too narrow for a Bass VI. The relatively narrow bridge also means that the outer string get further way from the edge of the fingerboard as you move up the neck. On the other hand the vibrato mechanism is a lot more useful than the one on the Squier. It's smoother feeling has a noticeable effect on all the strings and has less of a tendency to put the instrument out of tune. Overall the Barracuda is (for me) easier to play than the Squier, but it really needs to have a correspondingly wider string spacing at the bridge to match that of the nut for optimum comfort. The other interesting thing is that despite looking bigger and chunkier than the Squier Bass VI, both basses weigh the same (4.3kg on my scales) the Barracuda feels lighter on the strap and is definitely more comfortable to wear for a 2-3 hour rehearsal. When it come to the pickups and electronics there's a lot more variation between the Barracuda and the Squier Bass VI. The Barracuda has a standard Strat-type pickup selector with the conventional 5 options. However pulling up the tone control nearest the jack socket automatically activates the neck pick up irrespective of the position of the 5-way switch. I was a bit worried that the "in-between" pickup positions might sound a bit weedy, put while there is some thinning of tone, it's all very usable and all the positions work well in a band mix. At the moment I'm favouring either the bridge or middle pickup solo'd or the bridge and neck pickups together depending on the band mix. What is much better than the Squier is that the instrument has a lot of clarity without it being at the expense of the bottom end. To that end if you want to be playing surf-style bass this could well be the bass for you. There's plenty of twang and oomph available, and at the same time should it be required. As you can probably tell, while the Burns Barracuda still isn't ideal for me it's a lot more suitable than the Squier Bass VI. It is usable straight out of the case (it comes with a rather nice Burns branded hard case) without needing to shim the neck or replace the strings, and the bridge/vibrato unit while not being as wide as would be ideal is overall a lot more suitable for a bass instrument than the Squier. I think this bass will be fine for me at the moment, until I can afford to have something mode more specifically for my needs.

I’ve got the remastered (most recent remaster - there’s been a couple) of LED Zeppelin II and IV on vinyl and they sound awesome; much better than the originals in terms of mix clarity and dynamics. I think if they’re done well then it’s a ‘no harm, no foul’ situation.

Even with the import duty & electrical problem, that's a bargain. Lovely example of vintage MIJ class, that's a Fujigen Gakki build, like Ibanez of the same era & MIJ Fenders & Squiers. Since this is turning into a MIJ P copy love-in, here are my two: Daion Performer, from around 1980-ish, made by Yamaki Gakki: Ibanez 2366B, Fujigen Gakki, from 1972-73 as far as I can work out: Both lovely basses - but I don't really play Precisions so I certainly don't need two! Anyone want a very old, very, very rare Ibanez?

Wow. No biggie, I recognise your tone from some of the "sales assistants" in multiple shops that ultimately went bust due to lack of customer loyalty as a result of awful customer service😁

Yes, that is the attitude that a lot of music shops had when I was young many years ago, and why no-one was that worried when a lot of them closed down.

Great amps, in fact (cough) I may have accidentally bought another one myself!

Looks like it's the money option. Delicate soldering is not my bag either

After reading this, I think in retrospect I got incredibly lucky. I put an ad in Lemonrock 10 years ago this month. First reply was my guitarist, the second my drummer, we all got togeather a week later for a rehersal of 6 songs and we're still togeather after 10 years and probably 3-400 paid gigs. Is that unusual?

A bass player people recognise and appreciate. You? You're neither.

Alex James is obviously the exception to the rule...?

Love the original by Joe Jackson, but also love the cover by Anthrax :

Thank you so much! On the day, we set up the interview and David came up to the studio. The original plan was for me to follow my guide questions, but we got engrossed in to a really long conversation instead. So much so that we actually ran in to the allotted soundcheck time! I didn't open my pad once throughout the interview itself but we certainly talked about some really cool stuff! Frank's interview was also meant to be in the studio but due to timings we couldn't get back in. My notes being behind a locked door, I was told that I would quiz him in front of the awaiting audience instead. Which was nerve wracking. Frank, ever the gentleman was more than pleased just to, as you say, shoot the breeze and talk about his bass tone and what's important to him as a musician. I'd have to say that although the interviews were for a magazine, for me, it was an opportunity to reach out and do exactly as you've said. Two memories I hold dear.

Find a luthier and get an actual quote. You have nothing to lose by doing so.

What a delightful rhyme..! You're such an angel for having posted that.

I can't abide Thrash Metal but am very partial to the John Bush era of Anthrax when they changed their style. The basswork is uniformly excellent throughout albums like Sound of White Noise and We've Come for You All. For me the Bush era has much better singing, more melodic songs and avoids too much irritating pointless widdling

In another thread I was asking about what to do with a Trace Elliot BLX-130 that's on a shelf in my garage. Underneath it I found a copy of the warranty form which I had filled in stating I bought it at ABC Music, Oxford, in August 1994. So, the shop was definitely around then. I don't really have any clear recollections of it though.

Looking at it from the other side slightly, it’s always easy to see your own view as the one that makes sense and feel that your thoughts were the ones that everyone shares. It could be that the others in the band are happy with not gigging and thought this was the status quo. And as the band has not gigged in twenty years it’s probably reasonable to assume that all parties have gone along with this to at least some degree. The chances of getting a few people together who all have the same ideals and work ethic are pretty slim so any group of friends is likely to have different desires. It may be that the guitarist has terrible nerves and just can’t cope with gigging. Our band is four workmates, two of us would be happy gigging every week, the other two probably every couple of months. So we compromise and play roughly once a month. It works for all of us. There have been times when I have been frustrated but it has to work for everyone or it doesn’t work at all.

My fretless album would be Unorthodox Behaviour by Brand X

Heavy Weather - Weather Report.

Off top of my head we've played with at least three: Noasis, Oasish, and Definitely Oasis. My favourite part of doing tribute festivals is checking out band names tbh: laziest was a tie between The Killerz and Antarctic Monkeys and my favourite was probably Illegal Eagles.

Here’s mine!

Here's my Aria also from the same era (modified with bridge pickup and the original scratchplate was white). The body is made from Sen I believe.

I’m not sure how some people play their instruments, but a well looked after, yet old instrument won’t always be battered, bruised and have large sections of wood showing through. Some do, and I feel represent those that simply didn’t look after it, probably back in the day when they didn’t feel the need to look after them so much, as the value and desirability simply wasn’t there. Old and clean instruments are desired because they are looked after, like collectible cars, or anything else, they are not un-played because they have ‘issues’. Never understood that theory? Personally, I look for an instrument that is as original as possible, including the finish, then the best condition I can afford for my budget at the time, depending what itch needs scratching at the time. I’m not suggesting worn guitars aren’t also good instruments, many certainly are, they’re just not as well looked after, and prices will reflect that. I have an ‘82 JV proto Jazz bass from April ‘82, I bought it in ‘84, gigged regularly with it until ‘95, and still play it very regularly, it doesn’t have any additional marks on it from the day I bought it 34 years ago. Doesn’t make it a bad bass, it’s actually one of my best, and most played. I also look after it. Having said all that, I love to see an instrument with nice honest wear, even if I rarely buy them. Too many heavy relic things around these days which actually look nothing like a genuine old guitar, which is influencing how people I think about stuff I think.

Great basses, good call. The two switches are DFA1 and DFA2. Sound guys use them, albeit mostly with guitarists and singers, it's unusual for them to be required by bassists

Don’t get it: why is @mrtcat wrong? Poor customer service is bad PR, regardless of the customer’s intention.

My future tasty morsel

A podcast is very useful in the kitchen garden on those occasions when one proudly surveys one's burgeoning crop of peas and / or legumes only to discover that one of the pods has prematurely split open. Nil desperandum! Simply mix four tbsps of baking powder with 3 tsps of dilute 50:50 PVA glue / water and gently form the resulting mixture around the split pod to hold it together. Allow to dry. When the pod has reached optimum fruition gently open the cast with a modelling chisel, remove the contents and Hey! Presto! you're ready to cook. Podcast. A cast for a pod.